Domestic Car Sales Volume Rose 8.7% Year-on-year Last Month

Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors, Renault Samsung Motors, GM Korea and Ssangyong Motors increased their combined sales volume by 8.7% from a year ago to 815,294 last month.

The domestic sales volume added up to 146,016, up 20.3% from a year ago. This can be attributed to the Korean government’s individual consumption tax cut that became effective in September, release of new volume models and each company’s sales promotion programs.

Hyundai Motor Company’s domestic sales volume increased 6.3% to 67,807 while Kia Motors recorded a 25.9% growth to 46,605. Both GM Korea and Ssangyong Motors set new monthly records. The high popularity of the Spark and the Impala allowed GM Korea to post an 8.6% growth along with the highest October sales volume since its inception in 2002. The sales volume of the Tivoli of Ssangyong Motors hit a new high so the automaker’s monthly sales volume reached an 18-month high. Meanwhile, those of the SM5 and the SM3 of Renault Samsung Motors plummeted by 45.2% and 36.8% year on year, respectively.

The five automakers exported a total of 669,188 cars last month, showing a 6.5% growth from a year earlier. The upturn was led by the Hyundai Motor Group, which accounts for most of the exports and had a slump in overseas markets in the first half of this year.